Reels are a handling specification before they are a product
A reel with a crushed edge is downgraded or scrapped, and most of that damage happens in handling rather than in transit. Which means the right questions are about the receiving end, not about the mill.
What the grade actually means
Paper is specified by grammage in grams per square metre and by the strength property that matters for its use. For containerboard that is usually burst strength or edge crush resistance, measured to ISO methods, and for anything that will be printed or glued it is also the surface sizing, measured by the Cobb test.
A quotation that gives only the grammage is giving one of three numbers. Two reels at the same grammage with different edge crush values make boxes with different stacking strength, and the box is where the customer notices.
- Newsprint by grammage and brightness.
- Kraft and containerboard by grammage, burst or edge crush, and Cobb.
- Corrugated packaging by flute, board combination and box compression, with a sample board specified rather than described.
- Cleaning and facility consumables on a schedule, because they fail on stockout rather than on price.
- Workwear and protective equipment on a standard mark, which is worthless without a traceable test report.
Reel diameter, core and weight
Three dimensions decide whether a reel can be used at all: the width, which has to match the machine; the core diameter, which has to match the shaft; and the reel diameter and weight, which have to match the lifting equipment at the receiving end.
The last one is the one that gets missed. A mill will happily supply a reel at its standard diameter, and a buyer whose site has no clamp truck will then be unable to move it off the vehicle. Clamp handling also needs a reel that can take clamp pressure without ovalising, and a facility without clamps needs reels on pallets, which changes both the price and the loading plan.
We ask three questions before quoting reels: what lifts it at your end, what is the maximum weight that equipment handles, and is there a dock or is it a ground level discharge.
Moisture is the whole risk in transit
Paper is hygroscopic and a container crossing the tropics condenses on its roof at night. Reels loaded against a bare steel wall arrive with a wet edge. The pack has to include a liner or desiccant and the loading plan has to keep product off the walls and the floor, which means dunnage and a loading photograph showing it.
Corrugated packaging arrives flat and is ruined by the same mechanism, with the added problem that nobody discovers it until the boxes are being erected weeks later. The inspection window in the contract has to be long enough to be real and short enough to be provable.
Consumables are a schedule, not a purchase
Cleaning and facility supply has a different failure mode from everything else on this page: the cost of being out of stock is far higher than any price difference. The useful structure is a standing programme with an agreed call-off and a safety stock held either at origin or at destination, priced accordingly.
On the Durban corridor we usually quote this category DAP at the buyer's own gate, because on a long inland leg the port price tells the buyer very little.
What buyers ask about this category
The three that come up before a first order.
What do you need to know before quoting reels?
The machine width, the core diameter, and what lifts the reel at your end with its maximum weight. The third question is the one most often skipped, and it is the one that strands a container on a vehicle.
How is moisture damage prevented?
A liner or desiccant in the container, product kept off the walls and the floor with dunnage, and a loading photograph that shows it. The mechanism is condensation on the container roof at night, not rain.
Can you hold stock for a consumables programme?
Yes, either at origin or at destination, with an agreed call-off. On consumables the cost of a stockout is usually larger than any price difference, so the safety stock is worth paying for and we price it openly.
Other categories
The same method, applied to different goods.
Send a specification. Get a landed price.
Product, quantity and destination port is enough to start. If you only have a problem, describe it and we will write the specification with you.